Twin blasts at Thailand shopping mall leave at least 60 injured

Two explosions have rocked popular tourist destination Pattani, in the south of Thailand, leaving 60 injured.

It is the second attack in recent months in the deep south of predominantly Buddhist Thailand, where Muslim militants are fighting for an independent state. Separatist groups in the ethnic Malay Muslims provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat has killed more than 6,500 people since 2004, according to monitoring group Deep South Watch.

The last serious attack in Pattani was in August 2016, when a bomb exploded outside a hotel, killing one and injuring 29 people.

The explosions struck the town around 2pm local time (8am BST), with two bombs going off in quick succession around the Big-C supermarket in the city centre.

The first bomb reportedly went off inside the store and the second is believed to have detonated as customers fled outside to the carpark. Police said that the second explosion was set off by a car bomb.

"The first bomb was small and no one was hurt but the second bomb was huge," Captain Preecha Prachumchai of Pattani provincial police told AFP.

"Currently around 40 people have been wounded: one is in serious condition," he added.

Photos shared on social media showed a thick cloud of black smoke over the supermarket and debris strewn around the entrance.

Most of the wounded received treatment at the scene, but 21 people were taken to hospital with serious injuries, Arun Prasertsuk, deputy director of Pattani Hospital, told local media.

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